Elder Days (1970-1979)
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In the 1970s the cyber frontier was wide open. Hacking was all about exploring and figuring
out how the wired world worked.
Around 1971 a Vietnam vet named John Draper discovered that the giveaway whistle in Cap'n
Crunch cereal boxes perfectly reproduced a 2600 megahertz tone. Simply blow the whistle
into a telephone receiver to make free calls; thanks for using AT&T.

Counterculture guru Abbie Hoffman (above) followed the captain's lead with The Youth
International Party Line newsletter. This bible spread the word on how to got free phone
service. "Phreaking" didn't hurt anybody, the argument went, because phone calls emanated
from an unlimited reservoir.Hoffman's publishing partner,Al Bell, changed the newsletter's
name to TAP,for Technical Assistance Program.True believers have hoarded the mind-numbingly
complex technical articles and worshiped them for two decades.

The only thing missing from the hacking scene was a virtual clubhouse. How would the best
hackers ever meet? In 1978 two guys from Chicago, Randy Sousa and Ward Christiansen,created
the first personal-computer bulletin-board system. It's still in operation today.